Many Americans are rightfully concerned by the high rate of teenage pregnancy in this country. Few of these pregnancies are planned and most are conceived out of wedlock. Many end in abortion, others in the trauma associated with having a baby and giving it up for adoption. Teenage moms who keep their babies often sink into poverty along with their young. The fathers of these babies are often teenagers themselves and even more frequently unable to adequately support their children or act as responsible dads to them.
Adolescent girls get pregnant. They have abortions and babies. They receive contraceptives. Depending on the law of the state, they may be able to terminate pregnancies or get birth control without a parent’s knowledge or permission. Both teenage boys and girls can buy condoms over the counter
However, adolescent girls and boys cannot legally go into an adult bookstore to purchase sex toys. A parent or guardian who supplies such items could be prosecuted for enticement or contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
This is outrageous. Sex toys can be an aid to chastity by making it possible for people to gratify their often strong, even overpowering, physical needs without a partner. Such products should be at least as available to minors as contraceptives.
There is one kind of sex toy that is designed for use with a partner and can play a major role in the fight against teenage pregnancy and that is the strap-on dildo with a clitoral stimulator. Not only should it be legal for minors to have strap-ons but furnishing them with these tools should become a standard part of beginning to date.
While it is best for adolescents to avoid any type of partnered sexual activity, the penetration of a male by a female wearing a strap-on dildo is far safer than the more usual sex acts. Transmitting sexually transmitted diseases generally requires skin-to-skin contact.
There are risks with the use of strap-ons but they are few compared to fellatio and minuscule compared to vaginal intercourse or unaided anal intercourse. (A small risk of disease transmission exists if a dildo is taken out of one anus and immediately inserted into that of another person. Other types of infections could be transferred if the dildo is inserted into a vagina after being in an anus or if it is not cleaned properly after use. Cleaning is a simple matter of soap and water as it is for all sex toys.)
Even in this era of general gender equality, it is still usually the boy who attempts to initiate sex and the girl who is expected to set limits if limits are in fact set; it is without exception the girl who gets pregnant. Thus, it makes sense to provide any sexually mature girl with a strap-on dildo.
A teen girl who possesses a strap-on may suggest to boys that they perform a sex act that is kinkier but far safer than the ones boys usually suggest to girls. Boys can be expected to differ greatly in their reactions to such suggestions. Some are certain to Just Say No. Others will enthusiastically answer, Yes! Many, perhaps most, will balk as the girl coaxes (sound familiar?). However, none will get pregnant. No abortions will be performed and no one will suffer through the ordeal of nine months of an unwanted pregnancy because of this practice. No children will be born doomed to inferior care by unprepared parents because a young lady made love with her beau in this manner.
Of course, a strap-on dildo could be inserted into a girl by a boy or into a girl by another girl or into a boy by a boy. While no sex toy should ever go from an anus to a vagina, these uses would also cause fewer problems than the more common sex acts among youths. However, the penetration of a boy by a girl ought to have a special appeal to those with old-fashioned values who want to see more young women enter matrimony with intact hymens.
Some readers may see this suggestion as man-hating and part of a what Christian Hoff Summers has designated a war on boys. To the contrary, it is pro-male. By reducing the numbers of young men who father children they are unable to support, we will help them avert jail when they come of age. Financial destitution is not necessarily a legal defense for the failure to pay child support so fathers with low incomes often end up behind bars. They can be raped in jail. A sexual assault while incarcerated may leave a man psychologically traumatized and infected with an STD, including life-threatening HIV. By contrast, if a young man’s anus is well lubricated and relaxed, a dildo’s pressure on his prostate may be exquisitely pleasurable and lead to an orgasm.
Nor should it be assumed that awarding a strap-on dildo to a girl de-feminizes her. If she should in fact use it with a boy who is a backdoor virgin, she must practice patience if she is to make the experience a good one for her partner as well as herself. Patience is a positive virtue in people of either sex and especially necessary for (eventual) motherhood (should she chose that role). Both sexes get to see, and feel, how the other half lives which could increase their empathy for the other gender and be a valuable preparation for heterosexual matrimony.
The strap-on dildo should be available to any teen girl because, regardless of whether it is utilized or not, it makes it less likely she will get pregnant. A girl may react to her date’s pass with a suggestion that is opposite yet similar. He might tell her he does not want to engage in that sort of sex because it could cause discomfort or trigger sexual identity anxieties. She can ask him to compare those problems with the suffering involved in undergoing an abortion or carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term. The analogy could lead to worthwhile introspection and, consequently, improved behavior on the part of teen boys and young men. Thus, the dildo would serve a worthwhile purpose even if it never gets inside a rectum.
Abstinence education, training in the social skills needed to resist unhealthy peer pressures, girls’ sports, and the availability of contraception are all important in the struggle against teenage pregnancy. It is time for the strap-on dildo to play its part in this cause.
